In the recent years, several broadband wireless technologies have been developed to meet growing number of broadband subscribers and to provide more and better applications and services. For example, the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) developed Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA 2000), 1x Evolution Data Optimized (1x EVDO) and Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) systems. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) developed Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers developed Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) systems. As more and more people become users of mobile communication systems and more and more services are provided over these systems, there is an increasing need for mobile communication system with large capacity, high throughput, lower latency and better reliability.
Super Mobile Broadband (SMB) system based on millimeter waves, i.e., radio waves with wavelength in range of 1 millimeter (mm) to 10 mm, which corresponds to a radio frequency of 30 Gigahertz (GHz) to 300 GHz, is a candidate for next generation mobile communication technology as vast amount of spectrum is available in millimeter Wave band. In general, an SMB network consists of multiple SMB base stations (BSs) that cover a geographic area. In order to ensure good coverage, SMB base stations need to be deployed with higher density than macro-cellular base stations. In general, SMB base stations are recommended to be deployed roughly at the same site-to-site distance as microcell or Pico-cell deployment in an urban environment. Typically, transmission and/or reception in an SMB system are based on narrow beams, which suppress the interference from neighboring SMB base stations and extend the range of an SMB link using directional antennas. However due to high path loss, heavy shadowing and rain attenuation reliable transmission at higher frequencies is one of the key issues that need to be overcome in order to make SMB system a practical reality.
Lower frequencies in a cellular band having robust link characteristics can be utilized with higher frequencies in an mmWave band to overcome reliability issues in the SMB system. In an asymmetric multicarrier communication network environment, a mobile station (MS) communicates with a base station (BS) using asymmetric multiband carriers consisting of at least one low frequency carrier in the cellular band and at least one high frequency carrier in the mmWave band. The primary carrier i.e., carrier operating on low frequencies and the secondary carrier i.e., carrier operating on high frequencies may be transmitted by same BS or different BS. Since the transmission characteristics of low frequency carriers in the cellular band and high frequency carriers in the mmWave band are quite different, transmission time intervals (TTIs) and frame structures for the primary carrier and the secondary carrier may not be the same.
In an asymmetric multicarrier SMB network, low frequency carrier in a cellular band can be used to signal Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) control information (e.g., resource allocation (RA) and/or HARQ feedback or both) in order to gain on transmission reliability which is one of the prime challenges in mmWave transmission. In the conventional multicarrier system in which control regions of a primary carrier are used for transmitting RA and HARQ control information for a HARQ packet transmitted on a secondary carrier, HARQ operation timing is same as that of primary carrier as transmit time interval (TTI), feedback interval and retransmission interval for transmission of HARQ packet on the secondary carrier are same as that of the primary carrier.
An exemplary conventional multicarrier HARQ operation in downlink (DL) is illustrated in FIG. 1c. In FIG. 1c, resources are allocated for transmission of HARQ packet on a secondary DL carrier using a Packet Data Control Channel (PDCCH) transmitted on the primary carrier. The resources are allocated every scheduling interval for time duration equal to the scheduling interval. The time duration for which the resources are allocated is referred to as DL allocation interval. The DL allocation interval and scheduling interval is equal to 1 subframe i.e. 1 ms. The PDCCH in subframe on the primary carrier indicates resources for a DL allocation interval of the secondary DL carrier where the DL allocation interval is aligned with the subframe of the primary carrier indicating resources for the DL allocation interval. One HARQ process is assigned to one mobile station in the DL allocation interval in the secondary carrier. One HARQ process constitutes one HARQ packet transmission (including the retransmissions and its feedback). One HARQ packet spans time duration of the DL allocation interval and a single HARQ packet is transmitted to the mobile station in a single DL allocation interval. One DL allocation interval is also the transmit time interval (TTI) for a HARQ packet.
In an exemplary DL HARQ operation, the HARQ packet transmitted to the mobile station in the DL allocation interval is received and processed by the mobile station and the HARQ feedback is sent by the mobile station after fixed number of subframes using a feedback channel (i.e., Physical Uplink Common Control Channel (PUCCH)) on the primary uplink carrier. Based on the HARQ feedback of the previous transmission, the base station determines whether to retransmit the HARQ packet or not. The base station retransmits the HARQ packet and indicates the resources for the same by transmitting the PDCCH. Multiple HARQ processes may exist between the mobile station and the base station. All HARQ processes follow same method of HARQ operation viz, resource adaptation after processing previous HARQ packet transmission, retransmission TTI is present after TTI in which the HARQ feedback is received by the base station, and transmission of HARQ packet is performed after the HARQ feedback is received by the base station.
An exemplary conventional multicarrier HARQ operation in uplink (UL) is illustrated in FIG. 1d. The resources are allocated for packet transmission on a secondary UL carrier using a packet data control channel (PDCCH) transmitted on a primary carrier. The resources are allocated every scheduling interval for time duration equal to the scheduling interval. Generally, the time duration for which the resources are allocated is referred as UL allocation interval. The UL allocation interval and the scheduling interval are equal to 1 subframe i.e. 1 ms. The PDCCH in a subframe on the primary carrier indicates resources for an UL allocation interval of a secondary UL carrier wherein the UL allocation interval is at a fixed offset from the subframe in the primary carrier indicating resources for the UL allocation interval.
One HARQ process is assigned to a single mobile station in UL allocation interval in the secondary carrier. One HARQ process constitutes one HARQ packet transmission (including the retransmissions and its feedback). One HARQ packet spans duration of UL allocation interval in time and a single HARQ packet is allowed to be transmitted by the mobile station. One allocation interval is also the transmit time interval (TTI) for a HARQ packet.
In an exemplary UL HARQ operation, the HARQ packet transmitted by the mobile station in the UL allocation interval is received and processed by the base station and the HARQ feedback is sent by the base station after fixed number of subframes using a HARQ feedback channel (i.e., Physical HARQ Feedback Indicator Channel (PHICH)) on the primary DL carrier. Based on the HARQ feedback of the previous transmission, the mobile station determines whether to retransmit the HARQ packet or not. In case of uplink HARQ operation, the UL allocation interval for retransmitting the HARQ packet is at a fixed place with respect to previous transmission and same resources as assigned for the previous transmission are used. The base station may change the resources in the UL allocation interval corresponding to the retransmission of HARQ packet. Multiple HARQ processes may exist between the mobile station and the base station. All HARQ processes follow same method of HARQ operation, viz. resource adaptation after processing previous HARQ packet transmission, retransmission TTI is present after the TTI in which the HARQ feedback is received by the mobile station, and transmission of HARQ packet is performed after the HARQ feedback is received by the mobile station.